“Some of the classical music programming at Ravinia this summer will be all wet,” writes John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (3/2) Chicago Tribune. “Which is to say that a water theme will flow through the 2016 festival season, running June 2 through Sept. 11 at the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.… Various classical works of aquatic inspiration—including Chinese composer Tan Dun’s large, ritualistic opus for chorus and vocal-instrumental soloists, ‘Water Passion after St. Matthew’—will be presented in its Chicago-area premiere…. Eight conductors will make their Ravinia debuts, four of them—Kirill Karabits, Gustavo Gimeno, George Hanson and Ben Gernon—leading the CSO for the first time.” Other groups scheduled “include the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma; the Juilliard, Emerson and Takacs string quartets; Zukerman Trio; and Chiara, Avalon and Ariel string quartets.” With James Conlon’s departure at the end of last summer, “This will be the first Ravinia Festival season in more than a half-century without a permanent music director overseeing the CSO residency.” Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman “has engineered a handful of 2016 events loosely tied to the centennial of Robert Shaw, a towering figure in U.S. choral music.”
Posted March 2, 2016
